Friday, July 12, 2013

'Parlour' product of lifelong dream, risk

Inspired Cincinnati is The Enquirer's project on people who are working to make this a better place for all of us. They work in the arts, community service, their own businesses. They all believe you can create something new, exciting and fresh in Cincinnati.

Jessica Hoffman of Prospect Hill, stylist and owner of Parlour Salon on Woodburn Avenue in East Walnut Hills, colors the hair of Janet Gorman of Hyde Park. Hoffman opened the salon in April of last year. / The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran

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This story is part of The Enquirer's series about people who are working to make this a better place for all of us. They work in the arts, community service, their own businesses. They all believe you can create something exciting and fresh in Cincinnati. Know somebody creating things? Email John Faherty at jfaherty@enquirer. com.

Jessica Hoffman’s mother recently found a bunch of her old dolls. Hoffman had given them all so many haircuts – the hair getting shorter every time – that they all had pixies. It was a box full of Twiggys.

Now Hoffman owns Salon Parlour in East Walnut Hills. It is the type of place that happens when a girl who always knew what she wanted to do becomes a women who could see her future.

The moment she first laid eyes on what was then a run-down old corner space, she knew it was right. She could see past the fact that it had no electricity, no heating, no air conditioning. The floor was sheets of plywood.

“It was exciting to me. I knew I could make it my own,” said Hoffman, 28, sitting in her finished salon. “I could see myself here every day.”

The fact that she did it is a testimony to a precise vision, a strong will, a tireless work ethic and friends and family who believed in her as much as she believed in herself. Now, a corner that sat empty for eight years is a place where seven people are working, and they are making the city more beautiful one head at a time.

This whole thing started about two years ago. Hoffman had already spent nearly seven years as a hairstylist at a Hyde Park salon. She had lots of clients and was quite happy. Her dream, however, was to have her own shop, so she kept her eyes open for the right spot.

Then, one day, while looking at real estate for lease online, she found a perfectly awful spot.

It was empty and unloved and a near total mess. But it was right on the corner of Woodburn Avenue and William Howard Taft Road, an area that was beginning to percolate for artists and creative types.

It had big windows and natural light and exposed brick. And parking.The sign in the window said: “Awesome Opportunity.”

She signed a lease and began to realize what kind of undertaking this was going to be. But she wouldn’t have to do it alone. She started sketching things out on loose leaf paper and showing them to people. She showed her vision to her father, an electrician.

“He’s kind of like MacGyver – he can do anything,” Hoffman said.

She showed what she thought the workstations should look like to her friend Hayes Shanesy at the Brush Factory, a design studio. He said he could do that. Her sister did all the design work and her brother helped in more ways than she can count. Her mother helped with interior design. Her father’s best friend, a reluctantly retired contractor, gave her a great deal on a lot of his work. Her friend, now boyfriend, Ryan Santos, made a collection of cocktails to serve to customers. Nathaniel Hamilton designed the website.

Hoffman worked nearly nonstop. She would wake up early and go to the salon before her real job in Hyde Park. Then she would return after “work” and “work” some more, until 11 p.m. or midnight.

The next morning, she would do it again. And weekends, too.

“I would call that period of time stressful, exciting, overwhelming,” Hoffman said. “The people who have always inspired me believed in me. That was incredible to me. That kept me going.”

The hardest part, she said, was not the endless work or sleepless nights. For Hoffman, it turned out the hardest part was keeping her mouth shut.

She could not exactly talk about her new business while still working at her old shop. Talking about cultivating her new business would not be professional.

“A lot of being a hairstylist is talking. I couldn’t talk about the most important thing that was happening in my life,” Hoffman said. “I’m extremely open and I had this big secret. It was awful.”

After 9 months, the salon of her dreams finally opens

After nine months of work, Salon Parlour was ready. Hoffman and her two good friends and coworkers, Chrissy Reiff and Katie DeLong, both of whom worked with her at her previous salon, opened the doors on April 2, 2012.

The feeling is warm and open and modern.

But it also feels vaguely industrial and vintage. There is art on the walls and the entire space is filled with light.

The idea was for Salon Parlour to be not just a beauty salon, but also a “parlour” in the traditional sense. A place to appreciate art and talk and inspiration. A place to assemble.

But the move was a risk. A location change is an opportunity for a hairstylist to lose clients.

“They all came with us. I think we lost maybe two between all three of us,” Hoffman said.

And better still, the move introduced some of her clients to a neighborhood that maybe they hadn’t appreciated enough.

“It’s really cool to bring people to the neighborhood, people who have never been to Woodburn Avenue. And they all loved it,” she said.

The area has much to love, starting with one of Cincinnati’s grand old churches, St. Francis de Sales. The neighborhood now has coffee shops and vintage stores and a place selling French products.

On April 2 of this year, Hoffman wrote on her Facebook account: “One year ago today I opened the doors to what would become an all-consuming adventure that has changed my perspective, brought me joy and shaped my future. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and my dream. Opening Parlour has turned out to be an even greater experience than I could have ever imagined. To all of you who have helped make it what it is, and I am forever grateful.”

With a staff of seven, is expansion in her future?

Salon Parlour now has six stylists and an assistant. They cut hair six days a week, and Hoffman often works on Sunday doing paperwork.

On Wednesday of this week, she looked around her shop. Her vision had become her life.

Does she see a day when she might need to expand?

“I kind of feel like we are bursting at the seams already,” she said.

You could see the wheels beginning to turn. ■

I will write about absolutely anything ... so long as it is interesting. Reach me at jfaherty@enquirer.com.